


Drive Time

by tariana



Category: Toy Soldiers (1991)
Genre: Angst, College, Established Relationship, High School, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-30
Updated: 2018-07-30
Packaged: 2019-06-18 22:23:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15495984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tariana/pseuds/tariana
Summary: AU. Joey survived the terrorists’ occupation, but things still aren’t always easy when you’re in high school.





	Drive Time

Joey walked into the room after his last class to find Billy sitting on his bed, head in his hands. Billy looked up, and Joey was startled to see the glimmer of unshed tears in Billy’s eyes.

“God, Billy, what’s wrong?” Joey asked.

Billy simply held out a piece of paper – a letter.

Joey unfolded it and saw the Harvard logo. Not good news, then.

MIT and a few other places had already given Billy a pass, and now Harvard had done it, too. Princeton had accepted him, but Billy was holding out for something closer to Harvard, where Joey was going. Now he was out of chances.

“What the fuck are we going to do?” Billy asked, raking his fingers through his hair, making the unruly waves stand on end.

“We’ll figure out something,” Joey said, but the words sounded empty, sounded hollow, sounded false.

He started trying to figure it out... was it 300 miles? It had to be nearly that. That meant almost 6 hours of driving, almost all on the busy Interstate. That meant weekends were mostly undoable – only Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Spring breaks would be long enough for a real visit.

 

They’d never make it work, not for four years.

Is this how we’re going to end? Joey thought. Billy’d find someone else, or he would, and what felt so perfect and right now would slip away, in distance and loneliness.

No, Joey thought. No. We haven’t been through all this just to let it go now.

Yes, Joey thought. Yes. He knew what he needed to do.

He walked to his desk, opened the drawer, and pulled out the folder with his acceptance letters in it. He thumbed through them, finding the one he wanted, the one he needed.

He grabbed a pen and quickly signed the letter, accepting the scholarship they’d offered him. Then he turned to present it to Billy.

Billy’s eyes widened and he blanched when he saw it, and he said, “No. Joey, you can’t.”

“I sure as fuck can,” Joey replied angrily. “It’s three hundred fucking miles, Billy.” 

I love you. I won’t lose you. He wouldn’t say that, but that was what this really meant, wasn’t it? It meant that Billy was worth this. 

Billy just stared at Joey, for once mute with shock.

Joey snatched the Harvard letter from where it lay on Billy’s bed, and tore it in two with a decisive motion of his hands, then went to Billy’s desk and hunted through the drift of junk on top until he found the letter he wanted, then brought it to Billy.

“You were gonna go to Harvard for me. I’ll go to Princeton for you. Sign it.”

Billy’s hand shook while he signed the letter.

Later, after they’d told Phil to fuck off and leave them alone for awhile, Billy touched Joey, and made him groan, and murmured words of promise in his ear, and Joey clutched Billy close. And Billy’s hands didn’t shake at all.


End file.
